Review for Highlander's Homecoming, A
Author: Melissa Mayhue
Date of Review: 12/21/10
Reviewed by: Heather

Reviewer Comments: You have to love a highlander. But there is also Faerie dust working its magic on this couple as they deal with the issues that might be a barrier to them being together.

Robert MacQuarrie is a time traveler. He originally lived in 1272 but was transported to the present day to assist him heal. He has a job to complete and when he takes Leah back to protect her, he is finally able to fulfil his obligation to his friend, to look after Thomas’s daughter. Unfortunately, Leah and Robert travel to a time twenty years later, when Isabella is an adult. Robert appears to be a simple man. He has developed some modern day tastes but these do not seem to have affected his speech or actions when he travels back to the past. Isabella MacGahan has developed a particular persona for her own purposes. She is half-fae on her mother’s side but was still beloved by her father. Her mother left when she a baby and her father died when she was five. Isabella feels that her grandfather, the laird, treated her unfairly and she was banished to live in a cottage at least a day’s travel from the castle, a cottage she loves. When she was required, a messenger would be sent, usually a young boy. She always arrives in her madwoman persona and this ensures she is left alone until the laird’s right hand man, Roland, decides he needs to marry her off to a rival to pay a debt. It is this man, who in his machinations to gain the role of laird, decides the future of many. Jamie is a very young boy who appears to be neglected but is slowly being neglected to death by Roland and this is one thing that fuels both Isabella and Robert’s anger. Jamie does have an integral role in the story so the ending for Jamie is very satisfying. Roland also receives what he deserves.

The story of Isabella and Robert is an enjoyable one and the reader will like how the relationship works for the pair. There are many parts that the reader will find obvious such as Robert returning to a time when Isabella is old enough to fall in love but there are also some twists as the enemies appear, and those who appear to be an enemy but in fact are sympathetic to the main characters. It also shows that not all of the highlanders used brutal force to get what they want from others.

The time travel aspect, albeit a minor part, adds an interesting aspect. Of course this couldn’t have been possible without the assistance of Faerie magic. The characters who have travelled back in time have no problem fitting into the time period. There was one loose thread and that is Leah as she is from the present time and was taken to the past. We only read about her at the beginning and then towards the end so it makes me wonder what her story might be.